Spring 2022 trip - Day 5, Wednesday April 27th - Kansas City (MO) - no hikes

We spent the day doing basic getting to know you stuff here in Kansas City.  I walked 2 blocks downhill to get bagels in the morning.  This entire area (Power & Light district) of KC is very gentrified and newly developed or re-developed.  The bagel shop looks like a hipster coffee shop with mismatched but pretty wooden tables and an old time glass case for the bagels etc.  Those types of places always rub me a little as trying too hard but the bagel was at least adequate.  

Then we walked to the River Market district about 10 blocks away.  On the way we visited the central library.  The library was large and clean and had a few gallery spaces etc in it.  I thought the very political installation about native Americans was kind of whiny but Brian thought it was powerful.  There were some homeless people there and one very odd guy seemed to always be near us at the library and then when we left he absolutely followed us until we exited.  He was very odd.  Overall, Kansas City does not have very many obvious or disruptive homeless people.  


 

Before lunch we shared a fantastic lemon tart from a bakery in the market.  For lunch we had a pork sandwich at had outdoor seating and was able to have a napkin dispenser and condiments out unguarded.  That might sound ridiculous if you live someplace suburban or a small town but there is no way you could leave anything like that out in San Francisco, Portland or Seattle to name a few.  





 

We took the KC Streetcar back to our hotel.  It felt almost identical to the Portland Streetcar (not to be confused with the MAX).  It was modern and clean and free but quite slow.  We had a nap before heading over to friends' house and I took a Bendaryl to calm my crazy sneezing down.

One of the reasons Brian wanted to visit Kansas city was to see David's aging cat Patches.  Brian used to frequently cat sit Patches and he is very fond of that cat.  Patches is quite old and frail and probably won't be around too much longer but it was nice to see him and the friends we haven't seen since they moved to KC several years ago.



 

Overall, my impression of Kansas City based mostly on a short 2 days in a very bougie part of downtown is that it's surprisingly polished and they haven't given up on having a nice urban space.  I know the crime statistics for KC are amongst the worst in the US but like Chicago you can visit KC and be blissfully unaware of the problems beneath the surface.  We also appreciated that prices were surprisingly reasonable for food here.  It was a good first KC visit.


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